Council pay cuts go far deeper claim

DOZENS of council workers caught up in a swinging pay cut plan of up to £4,700 a year have spoken for the first time. The Stockport Express reported last week how 100s of staff faced pay cuts in 16 months which would average up to £2,000 a year.

DOZENS of council workers caught up in a swinging pay cut plan of up to £4,700 a year have spoken for the first time.

The Stockport Express reported last week how 100s of staff faced pay cuts in 16 months which would average up to £2,000 a year.

However, angry workers contacted the Express to say the cuts went much deeper than had been reported to us, and front line staff in areas including employment and youth offending faced cuts ranging from £2,000 a year or £38 a week up to £4,757 a year or £91 a week by April 2010.

The news was received in 1,000s of letters sent out last week by Steve Houston, Stockport Council’s corporate director for business services, and entitled ‘fair and equitable pay for all employees’, in which he reminded the workforce the authority: "Values its employees highly and has been working to ensure fair and equitable pay in the workplace", while informing them of what their new grades would be.

However, the Express now understands from council officials that the review was done on 7,204 employees, excepting management, which is covered by different agreements. In figures released this week by the council a total of 673 people (nine per cent) will have their pay cut; 3,208 (45 per cent) will get a pay increase; and 3,323 (46 per cent) will stay the same

One person who claimed to be among the worst hit contacted the Express to say: "We were told a job evaluation was going on and if cuts were going to come out of it most of us expected them to be much smaller. Some of my colleagues have been in tears because they won’t be able to meet their financial costs including mortgages. We feel we have been unfairly targetted and it absolutely devastated us. We’re in total shock."

Another staff member who will see their pay packet slashed by 17 per cent said: "We have been presented with a fait accompli. If we don’t sign we could effectively be refusing to accept the new pay and conditions and could effectively put ourselves out of work. Whereas, if we do agree to the pay cuts we are accepting losing money, pending an appeal. Most of us feel we are caught between a rock and a hard place."

On our website one person who described themselves as an ‘annoyed and devalued council worker’ said: "I will be one of those lucky 45 per cent to benefit from a pay increase. What the council has not elaborated on is that I would have received a pay rise to match this amount in April 2009 anyway. As it stands I will be at the top of the new salary scale with no further potential to increase this in future years. So come on Stockport Council be straight with people."

Another said: "What a wonderful day to come home to a letter stating that my pay is being cut by £2,500. Some of my colleagues are losing more than £4,000. And we are not management or pen pushers who sit in warm offices all day in council buildings. We are frontline practitioners who work with and in the community to try and encourage young people and the families of Stockport to improve their life chances."

Another employee said: "These pay cuts don’t seem to apply to the substantively paid managers, just the already low paid.

While Stockport Council claims just nine per cent of staff are affected by the cuts, an inside source said: "There is another group which haven’t been mentioned by the council and those are the staff who straddle two pay grades, for example 4 and 5, but have now been told they are grade 4. Whereas in the past these people could have expected to progress through the grading system they are now stuck at that level, with no forseeable improvements to their pay over the coming years. If that is not a pay decrease I don’t know what is."

A Stockport Council spokeswoman said the new gradings would still be subject to arbitration and appeal by members of staff who would have pay protection until April, 2010. She added: "Our main aim is to develop a fair pay grading structure to ensure that different groups employed by the authority are paid and rewarded consistently."